AFTERWARD old Mr. Crow had
to admit that he must have been forgetful. He had told Major Monkey to
hide
inside the hollow tree. And being a total stranger in the neighborhood,
of
course the Major didn't know that an owl lived there.

So he entered the dark hole
boldly. And soon he came dashing out of it much faster than he had gone
in,
shrieking at the top of his voice.

Old Mr. Crow was poised on a
branch, as if he were waiting for something. And he almost smiled as he
looked
at the Major and saw that he was shaking. The poor fellow's teeth were
chattering, too.

"There's a Tiger
inside
this tree"

"What's the
matter?" Mr. Crow called to him.

"There's – there's a
Tiger inside this tree!" Major Monkey stammered. "I know it's a
Tiger, for I saw his eyes. "

"Nonsense!" Mr.
Crow exclaimed. And he burst into a loud haw-haw.
"It's' nothing but an old Owl. I forgot all about him.
A fine
soldier
you are – afraid of an old Owl!"

Major Monkey straightened
his cap and looked as soldierly as he could. "You're mistaken, in a
way," he told Mr. Crow. "I admit I was afraid. I was afraid
I had frightened him, waking him
up so suddenly. So I retreated."

Old Mr. Crow stopped
laughing and looked very thoughtful. It occurred to him that Major
Monkey was a
somewhat slippery person. Certainly he could slip out of a hole about
as easily
as anybody Mr. Crow knew.

"You'll have to find
some other place for me to hide," the Major announced. "I don't want
to stay in this tree all day, for I shouldn't like to disturb a
gentleman's
rest."

Mr. Crow pondered for a few
moments. "You see that old haystack?" he said at last, pointing
across the fields. "Go and burrow under that. And be back here exactly
an
hour before sunset."

Major Monkey saluted.

"That suits me,"
he said. And then he turned and scurried down to the ground, leaped
quickly
upon the fence, and gal­loped off along the topmost rails.

Mr. Crow spent a very busy
day invit­ing everybody to his party, to meet his old friend, Major
Monkey.

"He's a famous
soldier," Mr. Crow ex­plained, when people asked him questions.
"And
I hope you'll all wear your best clothes, because the Major himself is
very
handsomely dressed. There's gold braid on his coat, and on his cap,
too."

The old gentleman talked so
much about the Major's uniform that a good many of the neighbors
thought that
Mr. Crow ought to postpone his party for a few days, until they could
get Mr.
Frog, the tailor, to make them some new clothes.

But Mr. Crow wouldn't listen
to them.

"No!" he said.
"We mustn't wait. My friend the Major is a great traveller. There's no
knowing when he will take it into his head to move on. And if you want
to meet
him there's no time like the present."

Well, people were so busy
getting ready for the party that there was a great flurry everywhere
all day
long – except at the haystack, where Major Monkey was hiding. And
even he did
not have so dull a time as you might suppose.

Luckily, he had discovered a
lone apple tree near-by. And being fond of fruit he crept out of the
haystack
every few minutes and gathered apples.

What he could eat, he ate
greedily. And what he couldn't he hid under the stack.